by Lane Hart
As I run full out in a sprint, I can't hear anything past the blood pounding in my ears. I've only been running maybe two minutes when I'm tackled from behind and land face first on the sandy ground.
"You stupid little bitch!" Torin growls as I squirm underneath him. "You're more trouble than you're worth! And now you're gonna regret the fuck out of running."
"You're gonna kill me, aren’t you?" I sob into the dirt, thrashing to try and get away even though it's useless. He’s so much bigger and stronger than me. "You were never gonna let me go!"
"I was gonna kill you," he admits as he continues to easily pin me down. "But now…now I'm not so sure."
Tired of eating dirt, I finally quit flailing. It’s not like I'm going anywhere with his body weighing at least eighty pounds more than mine on top of me. And that's when I notice his gun pressing in between my legs. Wait a second. Is that...?
"Maybe I'd rather fuck you again before I kill you," Torin tells me, confirming that it’s his hard cock pressing down on me. Oh, and then he starts rocking his hips forward and back, forward and back, simulating fucking me. The worst part about it is that I'm starting to get a little turned on. God, I’m so stupid. He’s an asshole who is holding me hostage. But, yeah, if he untied me right now, I would probably let him fuck me. That seems like a small price to pay to get him to let me go.
I gasp when he jerks his boxers that I’m wearing down, exposing my ass. And then I cry out in surprise when his bulge presses right into the crease.
"Tell me to stop, Lexi," he whispers, rubbing his jean-covered cock over my ass and my hands that are still clasped behind my back. "Tell me to stop and see if I’ll do it! You fucked me over without a second thought, didn’t you?”
“I’m…I’m sorry,” I tell him. “Do you think I wanted to lose my virginity to an asshole like you? Do you think I wanted to have a video –”
“Then why the fuck did you do it?” Torin roars before he flips me to my back so that his face is hovering inches from mine.
“I didn’t think I had a choice!” I explain.
“Bullshit,” he spits. “I don’t buy that for a second. You had a choice! You didn’t have to do anything!”
“Right,” I reply with a scoff. “And you could’ve just told your wife the truth rather than pay –”
My sentence is interrupted when Torin’s hand grabs my throat and squeezes it.
“I paid that bastard to protect my wife because she never would’ve believed me if I told her that you, a hundred pounds of nothing, drugged me and fucked me.”
Shaking my head, I tell him through gasps, “I didn’t…I didn’t drug you!” Jeez, he really is delusional about that night. Is that what he tells himself as an excuse for what we did?
“Liar!” His hand tightens around my throat; and with my arms restrained, I can’t do anything to resist.
“Did she know…you came to see me dance…every night for a week before…”
“Shut the fuck up!” he hisses as the night begins to close in on me. “I own Avalon. I didn’t come to see you!”
“Whatever…you say…Torin,” I manage to gasp out before the darkness takes me under.
…
Torin
When Lexi's body goes completely limp, I know I’ve gone too far.
Fuck.
I hate how she can get in my head so easily, saying shit that makes me feel even worse about myself for what I did. Or what she did to me.
And she’s right. I could’ve told Kennedy the truth the next morning, or hell, in those first few weeks after we were married and Hector started blackmailing me. I tried. Fuck, did I try. In the end, I was too ashamed and too afraid to lose her. Especially after Kennedy found out she was pregnant.
How could I explain to her what really happened when she was already so emotional from the hormones, with a kid on the way that neither of us was ready for? Even the truth, if she would’ve bought it, would’ve hurt her beyond repair. So I kept the secret, paid the money, and didn’t tell a soul.
Who would ever believe that me, the president of the Savage Kings MC, was given a cocktail of drugs that made it possible for me to fuck a woman while not being able to raise a hand to stop her, even someone as small as Lexi? Hell, sometimes I don’t know if I believe it myself. At the time it felt like a mistake, like I made a horrible decision that I had to live with. All the details were hazy.
Then, Hector sent me the video after Kennedy and I were married, and I realized that one night had the power to destroy my old lady and everything the two of us had together. I couldn’t lose Kennedy like that…but then I did end up losing her for good.
I heft Lexi up and over my shoulders, taking a second to fix my boxers that she’s wearing and feeling horrible for trying to pay her back. Hiking back the short distance to the hotel, thankful that no one else is outside this time of night, I come up on the hotel where my worthless brothers are standing in the doorway in their boxers with bedhead.
"Torin, man, what the fuck happened?" War asks first.
"Thanks for your help. I found her," I say sarcastically as I march past them into the room. Both of them probably wish she had got away.
"Um, Torin, what did you do when you found her? Please tell me she’s not…that you didn't..." Coop starts.
"Kill her?" I finish for him.
"Yeah, that,” he says, swallowing hard enough to make his Adam’s apple bob.
"No, I didn’t kill her. I don’t think," I reply before lowering Lexi to the bed. Her eyes are closed, pink lips parted. I hate that just looking at those lips makes me think things I shouldn’t about anyone but Kennedy. I roll her to her side and pull the knife out of my pocket to free her wrists from behind her back. She has to be in pain from having her shoulders in that awkward position for so long.
Do I trust her not to try and run again? Hell no. I’ll just have to keep a better watch on her. Tomorrow, we have to get on a plane, and I’m still not sure how we’ll get her to cooperate. I’m thinking we may have to drug her.
I go and get a warm washcloth from the bathroom to clean the dirt from her face and legs, then get the duct tape to restrain her wrists together in front of her body before covering her with the sheets.
"What?" I ask softly when I turn around and War and Cooper are still standing in the same spot as when I came into the room, staring at me with their arms crossed over their chests.
"We need to talk," Coop says.
"Then talk."
He walks into the adjoining room, so I assume he wants me to follow. I barely step into the darkness when I'm nailed by his fist across my face.
“Cooper!” War shouts before he jumps in between us and pushes Coop backward.
"You better be glad I'm still tired or I'd knock your ass out," I tell Coop, rubbing my now aching jaw.
"You hurt her! You actually hurt her. What the hell is wrong with you? I knew you were an asshole, but hurting a woman –” Cooper shakes his head as his voice trails off.
"She ran. What was I supposed to do, huh? Let her get away?" I ask.
"You could’ve caught her without knocking her unconscious!"
"You’re right,” I agree. “I overreacted. But if you knew what she did to me…”
“Just tell us!” Cooper exclaims.
“No,” I reply. “It doesn’t matter now.”
Scoffing, he says, “Well, obviously it does if it made you nearly kill her!”
“She’ll be fine,” I tell him. “But we can’t let her get away. Not until we draw Hector out and kill him.”
"How the hell are we supposed to get her through the airport tomorrow?” War asks.
“I dunno yet. Can we find a private jet?”
“Yes, Reece has one on standby, but there will still be a few people around at the airport, then there will be the pilots and stewardesses,” he explains.
“I guess we may have to drug her or get her drunk so that if she runs her mouth we can just say that she’s fucked up and we�
�re taking her to a treatment facility on the east coast. That’ll work, right?”
“Uh-huh, sure,” Coop mutters before he goes over and climbs back into his bed. “I can’t wait until this shit with Hector is over.”
“You and me both,” I agree.
“Do you want me to take over the watch?” War asks.
“Nah,” I tell him since he’s only had about two hours of sleep. “I’ll keep an eye on her. I’m wide awake now.”
“All right, but let me know if you get tired,” he says. “You fell asleep when she ran, didn’t you?”
“Just for a second. It won’t happen again,” I say before I go back into the other room and grab the duct tape.
It won’t happen again because I’m taping one of my wrists to the two of hers. Now wherever she goes, I go too.
Chapter Eight
Lexi
I wake up gasping for breath and struggling to sit up in bed. It’s not easy to do since my hands are now restrained in front of my body with duct tape. Not only that, but there’s a third hand…
“You’re fine,” a deep voice grumbles from what sounds like just inches away in the darkness. He must be close if he’s tied himself to me.
“I’m definitely not fine,” I murmur.
“Go back to sleep,” Torin says as he tugs my arms down to the mattress when he moves his much larger hand.
Since I don’t seem to have a choice in the matter, I let out a frustrated breath, then lay my head back down on the pillow. I try to squirm underneath the covers a little more since it’s chilly in the room with the air conditioner running. I can feel Torin’s body heat, so I’m pretty sure he’s underneath the covers with me.
My mind races back to the last thing I remember before I woke up in a panic. I had made a stupid attempt at running and Torin caught me. He was angry, not just for me running but for that night. Then I remember something he said that wasn’t true.
“I didn’t drug you,” I whisper in the darkness. “I-I thought you wanted me.”
“Shut the fuck up and go back to sleep. No point lying about it now,” he grumbles.
“I’m not lying,” I reply.
His heavy sigh is warm across my face and loud in the room that’s silent other than the air conditioner running.
“Fine, if you say you didn’t drug me, then tell me who the fuck did,” he mutters. “You were the only traitor in my club that night.”
“Are you sure about that?” I ask him. “I wasn’t a traitor since I didn’t even know much about you. But one of your guys had been working for my father before I left…”
“Christ, the bullshit never stops with you, does it?” Torin interrupts. “There’s no fucking way.”
“He is, or he was at least at one point,” I tell him.
“Then tell me his name.”
“I-I dunno what his name was,” I admit, closing my eyes to try and remember the details of the man who came to our house several times wearing a leather cut. “But he was a prospect. Were any prospects there at the club that night?” I ask.
Torin is silent for several long seconds before he says, “No, I don’t believe you.”
“I didn’t drug you,” I tell him again.
“Then what were you doing there for a week before, leading me on…”
“I wasn’t leading you on. I was trying to earn my own money, to get out from under my father’s thumb. And yes, I was flirting with you from the stage, but I didn’t know someone was gonna record us together!”
“Ha!” Torin barks out. “So now you’re saying you didn’t set up the camera either. Right. You think I’m gonna buy that you were just a poor little victim in all of this?”
“I was!” I exclaim. He has no freaking clue what I’ve been through since that night. “You came and asked me to give you a private lap dance. You told me to get naked and…do things to you,” I remind him.
“That’s a really great story, but that’s all it is. A story! Because I don’t remember anything that happened before we went into that room together!” he yells. “All I remember is barely being able to hold my head up.”
“Maybe you just don’t want to remember,” I reply. “Besides, the video doesn’t lie.”
“The video that you knew about the whole time…”
“No, I didn’t!” I shout. “Do you think I wanted anyone, especially my father, to witness my first time with a man?” I ask. “It’s disgusting! And…and he showed it to fucking friends!”
…
Torin
Fuck. I must be sleep deprived if I’m starting to buy Lexi’s bullshit. First, she says she didn’t drug me, that someone else, one of my guys did. And then she says that she didn’t know that we were being recorded when we fucked. I almost believe that part because of how upset Lexi sounded when she said that her father showed other men the video – a video of her naked and having sex for the first time.
I wasn’t lying when I told her that I don’t remember anything that happened once we went into that room together. Someone put some shit in my beers; and from the research I’ve done, I’m guessing it was Viagra and some roofies. The combination allows a man to have an erection and use it without really knowing it. Apparently, it’s a well-known cocktail given to businessmen and tourists traveling alone overseas to allow prostitutes to rob them blind after they pass out.
The morning after the bachelor party, the cleaning crew found me passed out on the sofa in the private room for Kings only at Avalon. My brothers left me there, and I later found out from War and Chase that they thought I had left the club early. And I wasn’t about to tell them that I was so drunk I couldn’t remember but that I think I may have fucked one of the strippers. So I went along with the lie.
At first, there were only brief flashes of Lexi fucking me, almost like a vague dream. I told myself it was all in my head because I wouldn’t have cheated on Kennedy. And I wouldn’t have. That’s what I told myself the entire week before our wedding and then the day of, even though my gut was telling me to call it off, that I didn’t deserve someone so good and sweet as Kennedy. That I would ruin her.
And I was right.
After we got back from the honeymoon, I was hit with the news that Kennedy was pregnant; and then Hector emailed me the video on the Savage Kings' official email address. Thank fuck I was the only one who read them. I worried that Reece may have seen it since he’s in charge of our IT shit, but he assured me that he wouldn’t invade one of his brother’s privacy like that.
I felt so guilty after watching that damn thing that I couldn’t even look at my pregnant wife. That’s why I started spending more time at the clubhouse, hiding my shame from her. I was worried that, if I were with Kennedy for more than sleeping at night, she would realize I was hiding something from her. So I hid myself. I missed out on the last eight months with my wife because I was ashamed of myself.
Now she’s gone, and I’ll never get that time back. I can’t help but think about what if I had told her the truth. Would she have forgiven me? At the time, I didn’t think she would believe me, but now, what if I was wrong and she would’ve trusted that I didn’t want anything more than a lap dance from Lexi, or Harley as she was called at Avalon.
Except that’s not exactly true.
I wanted Lexi. She was right when she called me out for coming to the club every night for a week to watch her. I wouldn’t let her get close enough to dance for me or speak to me because I was happily engaged and getting ready to marry the woman of my dreams. Lexi was nothing but a pretty face with thick, gorgeous waves of jet black hair that fell over all her golden tan skin. She was exotic and dark, the opposite of Kennedy’s classically blonde and beautiful lightness.
The night of my bachelor party, I made the stupid decision to indulge myself one last time with a private lap dance. That was all it was supposed to be. I had no idea I was being set up.
“I left town after I found out about the video,” Lexi says. “And I didn’t tell my father whe
re I was going. That’s probably why he thought you were responsible for my disappearance months ago.”
Have I had it wrong all this time? Has my anger at this woman I barely know been a mistake? I still don’t believe everything she says, but it’s enough to make me doubt my assumptions.
“I hated him for what he did and didn’t want him to be a part of our lives...”
“Can you stop talking so I can try to get some sleep?” I interrupt her.
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“This bed is actually comfortable,” I mumble as the tension eases out of me and I sink further into the mattress. “I haven’t slept worth a shit in months…”
“Why not?” Lexi asks.
“Go the fuck to sleep,” I snap at her, even though I’m aware that it’s my fault I keep talking to her.
Chapter Nine
Torin
“Lieutenant! They’ve got us pinned down here. What are your orders?” one of my squad members yells. She’s nearby, but I can barely hear her over the thunderous cracks of rifle fire from the ruined building across the road.
I do a double-take when I glance over and see Kennedy, in full kit, her heavy pregnant belly bulging under her body armor. Before I can even acknowledge her presence, a heavy body slams into my back. I drop my rifle as I struggle to catch the soldier collapsing at my feet. I can feel the sweat under my helmet turn to ice as I see who it is. My best friend, War.
“Torin,” War gasps, blood bubbling from his lips. “They knew we were coming this way. Squad's got a rat…”
“Quiet, Sergeant!” I snap. “Medic! Get your ass over here!”
Kennedy scrambles over, awkward and off balance as she struggles with her gear. She wasn’t cut out for this life. How the fuck did I manage to drag her out here in the desert with me? Why didn’t anyone stop me?
“Look alive, Lieutenant!” Kennedy grins over at me, raising a hand to touch my face. A hand covered in War’s blood.
With a determined nod, I snatch up my rifle, and peer over the lip of the ditch where we’ve taken cover. A hail of bullets splinter the pavement nearby, forcing me back, but not before I see the men advancing on us. Men I recognize. My men.
